Life on an oil rig

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An underwater robot is lowered into the water to work on equipment on the sea floor, 8,000 feet below, in Oct. 2011. Two hundred miles off the coast of Texas, ribbons of pipe are reaching for oil and natural gas further below the ocean's surface than ever before. Jon Fahey/AP

A meter measuring barrels of oil sold is seen aboard Chevron's Petronius oil platform, located 100 miles off the coast of New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico. Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Scott Nimelstein, Chevron's operations support supervisor for deep water, climbs into a lifeboat as a fire alarm goes off aboard Chevron's Petronius oil platform, located 100 miles off the coast of New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico. Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

A worker maneuvers a drill bit at a gas and oil drilling rig in the Patagonian province of Neuquen, Argentina. The Patagonia landscape, transformed after the discovery of big deposits of hydrocarbons in the 1970s, could experience another energy revolution due to forecasts indicating that the deposits could contain the third-largest reservoir of unconventional natural gas in the world. Enrique Marcarian/Reuters

Special antiterrorist forces of Poland's MSWiA (Ministry of Interior and Administration) train on a PetroBaltic Oil Platform in the Baltic Sea. Peter Andrews/Reuters/File

The satellite oil rig 'Danny Adkins,' owned by Noble Oil, is seen on the horizon from the Perdido platform, in Oct. 2011. Jon Fahey/AP

Crew members work on a bail clamp on the drilling platform of the Petro-Canada Rig 60 in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The bail clamp attaches to elevators that lift the drill string used to bore into the earth. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor

A muddy run-off splashes beside an oil rig belonging to Zion Oil and Gas in Karkur, northern Israel, in Oct. 2010. Using the Bible as its guide, Texas-based energy company Zion Oil and Gas has searched for oil in the Holy Land for a decade. The company uses a map of the 12 ancient tribes of Israel and a biblical assertion – 'the foot of Asher to be dipped in oil on the head of Joseph' – as guides to help it decide where to drill. Nir Elias/Reuters/File

Angus Kikoak, shown in this 2001 photo, is an Inuvaliut who broke into the drilling business working as a floor hand on the Akita/Equtak Drilling Rig 60 in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The drilling company has maintained a partnership with the native Inuvialuit Development Corp. since 2000. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File

AnWorkers walk in front of the P-51 oil rig of Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, in 2008. Four miles under the ocean's surface off Brazil lie billions of barrels of recently discovered light crude, a treasure that is transforming the country into an oil superpower. Ricardo Moraes/AP/File

An oil worker walks past a drilling rig at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, in Morichal in July 2011. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Sleeping quarters aboard the Perdido, operated by Shell Oil Co. and owned by Shell, Chevron, and BP, in Oct. 2011. The platform is in the Gulf of Mexico, 200 miles south of Galveston, Texas. Jon Fahey/AP

Workers labor to place a plug in the bore hole to run tests at the Petro-Canada Rig 60 in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Andy Nelson/The Christian Science Monitor/File

Rig workers send pipe into a well they are drilling from the Perdido platform in Oct. 2011. It is the seventh of 35 wells that will be drilled for the platform. Jon Fahey/AP

An oilfield worker ties pipes to be raised on an oil rig as the sun sets in the Persian Gulf desert oil field of Sakhir, Bahrain, in July 2010. Hasan Jamali/AP/File

The Scarabeo 9 is lit up off the coast of Havana on Jan. 22, 2012. A partnership of companies from Spain, Norway, and India is expected to drill at least two wells in Cuban waters about 70 miles from the Florida Keys. The Scarabeo 9, a semi-submersible rig that floats on four giant pontoon legs and has living quarters for more than 200 crew, was built in China, then sent to Singapore in late 2010 for completion. Desmond Boylan/Reuters

A man works on an oil rig at Sinopec's Shengli oil field in Dongying, Shandong province. Aly Song/Reuters